


Time Will Tell

by MidNightRosee



Series: Time Will Tell [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Assassin - Freeform, Attempted Suicide, David Rossi finally finds love, David Rossi misunderstands life, Death, F/M, FBI Case, Fluff, Loss of family members, Not really slow burn, Now that we got the bad shit out of the way..., OC can be mean but has a soft heart, Runaway CIA Agent, Serial killer group, The Circle, Them Feels, does anyone even read these tags?, high emotional feels, kinda slowburn, there might be smut, things change quickly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-08 06:21:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15924665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidNightRosee/pseuds/MidNightRosee
Summary: Erin Blackwell is your stereotypical assassin for the CIA including, but not limited to her highly trained sniper shooting, deviance of orders, chronic 'fieldtrips', avoiding the law, cat-like behavior, and the tendency to steal from fruit stands. When the sarcastic runaway runs headlong into David Rossi, what sort of chaos will ensue? Will they tear each others' heads off? Solve the cold case regarding the circle? Or maybe, just maybe, David will finally find someone who loves him enough to stick around.





	1. Prologue: Unexpected

When David Rossi had retired from the BAU, he thought it would be the last time that he was involved with the FBI. The only connection that he had expected to have was the occasional consultation, Gideon, and his writing. He hadn’t expected to run into a CIA agent. A CIA agent with a sarcastic attitude, a reputation for lack of corporation, and as it was during the time they met, on the run from the law, again. There would be times when David would question why he didn’t hand over Erin Blackwell the moment they met. There would be times that he thanked whatever deity existed that he had met Erin. But most of all, there would never be times that he regretted falling in love with her, or everything that had come as a result. For David Rossi, number 4 finally did the charm rather than number 3.


	2. Running

When Erin had gone under the radar, she hadn’t anticipated the harsh sun of Miami, Florida, nor had she considered that wearing a long sleeve shirt and mid-length shorts would make the humidity even worse. She would honestly take the arid desert heat over humidity any day of the week. In fact, that trip to Nevada was the entire reason she was wearing a white brimmed hat, a long-sleeve button down, and shorts in the middle of July. They send an assassin… well technically a sniper, but that’s just a detail… to Nevada and expect “no deaths”. I mean, did they not look at her track record before they sent her out? She had stopped the leader of the drug cartel for good this time. The world would be a better place without him alive, but of course, her boss, the infamous Maxwell Fox had told her over the burner to get her ass back to HQ. Of course, he should have expected her to do the exact opposite. She didn’t exactly take ‘commands’ like a dog. She had always preferred cats. They were independent, didn’t care about others, and kept to themselves. Dogs were too loud, too needy, and always willing to please. Hell would freeze over before she rolled over like a ‘good girl’. Then again, refusing to return to HQ meant that she was once again on the wanted list and would be dragged back to HQ at some point, but until then, she had free roam. She’d go back to HQ… eventually.

Erin continued down the choked streets of Miami until she came upon some set up fruit displays in what appeared to be an outdoor market. Considering that she hadn’t eaten since she left Atlanta, stealing some fruit sounded like an awesome idea. After all, she was stealthy as an alley cat. Erin merged into the market crowd selecting the fruit stand in the middle section. She was successful for the most part; grabbing a banana, an apple, but her luck ran out when she spotted a golden wrist watch. While Erin wasn’t one for material items, the watch was clearly high quality and she justified her attempt to take it since the ‘owner’ had probably stolen it anyway.

“Hey, you have to pay for that!” the owner shouted as Erin tried to merge back in the crowd. Unfortunately for her, the shout alerted some of the police men nearby at a coffee shop. Well, time to go. Erin booked it through the now screaming and otherwise confused crowd as the police officers tried to push through. Erin’s small height of 4’ 9” made her the perfect height to duck weave and bob through the crowd with relative ease. The police men, however, were still on her tail.

“You there! Stop!” the burlier one with a mustache shouted. Erin risked a tiny glance over her shoulder before ducking fully into a side alley. Looking forward, Erin saw her second bad occurrence for the day; a partial dead end, in other words, a fence. Sighing, Erin walked back two paces and took a running jump landing towards the top of the fence and working her way up. When the Police men had finally arrived, Erin had crossed over the fence and was running to the next street, but bad things tended to come in threes as the red and blue flashing lights of an approaching cop car signaled. Looking around, Erin spotted a book signing in a nearby bookstore and quickly ducked in. By the looks of it, the author was popular since the bookstore was packed. That was a stroke of luck. Crowds were easier to blend in with. Now all she would have to do was buy a book. Maybe it would have been cheaper to feign innocence and have paid the fruit seller. Well, you live and learn.

“Oh my gosh, did you read his last book? It was so amazing!” one fan girl screamed.

“I know the murders are so realistic,” another fan agreed.

“Well, he was an FBI agent,” another drawled.

“Really? I thought that was like artistic license to make the book sell more,” another one commented. Erin picked up a nearby copy of the selling book: Cabin by the Lake. Erin rolled her eyes. What a classic title, couldn’t he come up with something more interesting?

“Cabin by the Lake written by David Rossi,” Erin read aloud.

“That’s the new book. He just published it last week,” the store keeper stated smiling at her from the front desk. “Are you interested in purchasing a copy? We have a book signing starting in an hour.” Erin glanced back outside as the formerly pursuing cops and new cops talked to one another.

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Erin forced a smile. The Cashier rang up the novel for $25.89. Why did new novels always cost so much? The book nearly whipped Erin’s small supply of cash out. All she had remaining was $9.23. Looks like she was sleeping outside again. Maybe the book would be boring enough to make her fall asleep?

Erin stood off to the backside watching the cops through the windows. They had been going store to store trying to find the ‘culprit’ but leaving each one after a few minutes. A few other cops had been called in to help with the search. Erin had tried to spot a back door but hadn’t been lucky. There were just too many people around to see and time was starting to run out. A few other patrons had noticed the search outside and gathered by the windows asking curious questions as to what was going on, or at least, they had been before the person they had been waiting for emerged from the back office. David Rossi, acclaimed BAU FBI agent. She’d heard of him, of course, you don’t work for the CIA and not know the famous FBI agents. Considering that Rossi and Gideon had founded the BAU, they definitely counted among the ‘need to know’ agents. All the Rossi fans gathered around the seating arrangement and Erin found the extra crowd members incredibly annoying.

“Pleasure to be here with you all today,” David began. “I’m David Rossi as I’m sure many of you know.” To which almost all the heads nodded. “I’ve been asked to speak a little bit about my new novel and then there will be a Q and A session. Cabin by the Lake is based off a true crime that occurred during my years as an FBI agent. While I can’t release any names, I can tell you that the events in the book are all true…” Before Rossi could say another word, the door to the bookstore swung open and two policemen entered. The two men drew the eyes of Rossi and a few other patrons eliciting whispers among the crowd. Shit. The two men walked over to the clerk and started talking to her, pulling out a sketch they’d probably down hastily within the hour. Looking back at the back office, Erin slowly started to inch towards the room. She had nearly made it there when the clerk nodded her head to one of the officers and the two immediately started looking around the crowd. The two walked up to the podium and to the microphone.

“I need everyone to please step outside one by one. We suspect that there is a thief among you that stole an expensive watch from the state senator earlier today,” one of the men announced. Two other police officers arrived by the doors and Erin realized she was trapped. Unfortunately for her, Rossi was blocking the back office and staring directly at her. Double shit. The crowd began to murmur and walk towards the door while Erin inched towards the back, hoping that Rossi would move. Instead, he stepped right next to her and looked her over head to toe.

“It’s you,” Rossi stated. A statement and not a question. Thinking on her feet, Erin pulled out her CIA agent badge and showed him on the side. He looked down at it with a questioning eyebrow.

“Look, I can’t afford to be caught right now. It’s not a simple explanation and I really need to get to the back room,” Erin whispered. Rossi glanced between the officers and Erin before stepping to the side. Praising whatever god there was, Erin slid past Rossi and into the backroom where there was literally no windows or door. Sighing, Erin squeezed under the computer desk and somewhat behind the computer motherboard. She silently hoped that she wouldn’t be found, or roast to death before this ‘search’ was over. It was another hour before the search concluded and she could hear Rossi’s book signing continue, it was another two hours before Erin felt that she was a sweaty hot tomato, and it was one more hour after that before she heard Rossi and presumably the storeowner walk into the office.

“Thank you so much David for doing this,” the owner gushed. “It means a lot.”

“No need to thank me, Susan. How are you and the girls?” David inquired.

“We’re doing great. Ellie is off to college this year and then it’ll just be me and Mr.Whiskers,” Susan sighed. “I hope you’ll come back soon and with a new book.” David chuckled.

“I’ll do my best, Suz,” David replied before the backdoor shut again. Erin waited a few minutes before climbing out and finding herself face to face with the infamous profiler. “Long story?” David asked gesturing to the chair.

“Yeah…” Erin replied still standing. “Case I’m on: Drug cartel. The members thought it would be interesting stealing from the senator. I was too new to say ‘no’ without seeming weird, so yeah.”

“And is that why the CIA is looking for you?” David inquired sitting down and pulling out a bottle of whiskey from the desk.

“It’s more authentic that way,” Erin countered. “It’s not exactly your run of the mill cartel.”

“No of course not,” David agreed. “That’s why you shot the drug leader back in Nevada where you were actually working before you decided not to comply with orders.” Erin crossed her arms over her chest.

“And since you know so much about me, why didn’t you just let the police take me earlier?” Erin countered.

“In part, because you’re an enigma. I’ve heard a lot about your record. You’re a good shot if a little unorthodox, but you always run away. A profiler’s dream. And also, I intend to escort you back to headquarters, or you could get an escort to the police station in Florida. Your choice,” David offered. “Whiskey?”

Erin huffed narrowing her eyes, “I don’t drink.”

“Suit yourself,” David shrugged. Erin sighed before looking back at the FBI agent. If she was unorthodox, what did that make him? And it didn’t look like she had much of an option in terms of roaming. DC it was then.

“Looks like I’m hopping on the book tour,” Erin grumbled sitting next to Rossi.

“Here’s to crime novels then, Agent Blackwell,” David cheered before downing his drink. “Let’s head back to the motel.” David stood and was at the door while Erin stood in place. He raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Erin glared. “It’s not like runaway’s have access to their bank accounts.”

“Good thing former FBI agents do,” David countered. “Come on. I have to lock up.” Erin huffed but let a small smirk show as she followed him out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To give you an idea, I plan on updating every 1-2 weeks. I apologize for the delay, but I have schoolwork to finish and my grades determine my scholarship so... yeah. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter. Leave a kudos/comment.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my beta-reader: daydreams88, and to all you readers for taking the time to read my story.
> 
> Disclaimer:  
> I do not own any characters nor events from Criminal Minds. The only item in this story that I possess is the plot and Original character(s).


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